Editing The Pen Addict 386/transcript (section)

== Spartan Pen ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. Um, I don't have a fun or funny segue into this next topic other than the literal topic itself. I have been watching the Graffon Faber-Castell Pen of the Year releases for the past several years. They're usually the big, outrageous, gloriously expensive, fancy pen. Let us show off our, you know, capabilities in manufacturing and design in making a very unique, high-end pen. Like, it's the pinnacle pen of their year, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's like what Montegrappa do, right? Is it Montegrappa? Yeah. They do, like... Who is it that does the Chaos Pen? It's not Montegrappa, is it? Yeah. Yeah? Montegrappa. Okay. Yeah. Mm-hmm. There you go. It's like what they do.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, yeah. It's like a very high-end, design-rich, you know, not-for-everybody type of pen. It's the show pen, right, of the series. And it's their pen of the year. And they've made a bunch of great designs in the past. Like, I've considered them. They're a little bit expensive. And, I mean, they're a lot a bit expensive. That was a misspeak.

'''Myke Hurley:''' What sort of money are we talking, Brad?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I'm actually trying to look that up now. But we're talking, like, $2,000 to $5,000, I think, is what we're looking at.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's very expensive. But that is not, like, $70,000, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But as I look at the pen of the year 2020 Sparta available at the end of November, I'm looking for a price point, and I don't see it on Fabric Astor's page. I'm sure it's on some vendors' pages who are pre-listing it for sale. So, and, you know, I saw this pen pass, you know, through my feeds earlier this week. And I just saw, like, the, you know, like, the red kind of statue design and then, like, the silver pen. And you could tell, like, the helmet shape on the clip, right? And I was like, okay, cool. There's Fabric Astor's pen of the year design. Then I just moved on to the next thing.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And the body of it is kind of like the armor, like the skirt, right? Yes. Kind of pleated skirt.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Like the pleated skirt. They're, like, studded. Like, you know. And, you know, for the execution of it, sure, it's fine. Looks good, right? Like, they had a design. We're going to do Sparta. And this is how they executed it. And they executed it correctly. Then my friend Sarah tweeted at us this morning. And pointed out something that I did not notice in my initial glance because I just didn't care that much.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Why did they do this? I hate it. I hate it so much. Like, I want to burn it. I hate it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, the traditional Spartan warriors were not head-to-toe armored, let's say. I think that's fair. You're saying this is essentially a leather skirt and a chest plate. Mm-hmm. And, you know, in general, they showed off their physique, you know, their biceps.

'''Myke Hurley:''' We've all seen 300, you know?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, yeah. You know, there's some well-chiseled warriors. There's some, especially the ab region, Myke, or is, you know, a very good highlight of these fighters. And Faber-Castell has decided to honor the ab region by placing a set of abs on the grip section of the pen.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's not just abs. There's pecs in there, too. And pecs. If you look, you've got an entire torso sitting in this. I hate it. I hate it. It makes me feel so weird to see this pen with a human physique. It makes me so uncomfortable. It looks so weird. I don't like it. I don't like it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You know what my biggest problem is? Is I think it's upside down for how I would want it if I was, like, into this.

'''Myke Hurley:''' No, but then the nib is the head, right? I think they've done it the right way. The nib is the head. But is the nib the head? Because, no, because then the skirt is below the body.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. Right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Technically, yes, you're correct. And then the helmet goes on top of the nib, right? Yes, you're correct. But also over the abs, which is so you've kind of broken with the idea there. But I think that's why they did it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's anatomically correct. You're correct. But, like, visually, I'm, like, when I'm riding with it, you know, because that's how I'm pretending.

'''Myke Hurley:''' No, Brad, visually, there is no correct way to do this. Because that is a horrific thing to do to a pen. They put abs on a pen. Why'd you do that? You ruined it. Like, you went from evoking something to just doing it. You may as well have just made the entire pen in the shape of a warrior. Like, you went too far, Faber-Castell.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Like, so we'll have the link in the show notes to this. I want you to scroll down to the section. This is a great marketing page. You know, all the headlines, heartland and perfect. It looks good, though.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like, the page looks great, right? Like, it does its same.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Bravery and masculinity. So scroll down to the precise and powerful section and look at that image in relation to the warrior that they're showing. And you're like, oh, my God. Why did they have to do this? They did not have to do this. And that's the picture that makes me say, this is just a massive, massive mistake. I mean, it's...

'''Myke Hurley:''' Why did they do this? Why put abs on the pen? There's abs on the pen. No, the worst one. The worst one is you scroll down a bit further and there's a heading called black and high carrot. And it's, like, super pronounced.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Dude, that is, like, washboard, like... That's, like, some serious abs right there.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Why did you do it? Oh, it's even worse on some of the other models. Like, the rollerball. It looks even worse on the rollerball. This is what our life has become, Myke. Why did they put abs on the pen? Oh, my God. Don't put abs on the pen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, welcome to Pen Addict Lore, Sparta Pen. You will not be forgotten. I promise you that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, you're gonna... This is gonna be one of those things that comes up for a while.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm gonna be questioning all designs now. I mean, all of the other years, they didn't put abs on them and they look lovely. Like, there's a Viking one. They didn't put any anatomical details in the Viking pen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I mean, those guys were a lot colder. Like, they bundled up a little bit more. I guess.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, they didn't put any fur on it. I will say, just going through the Pen of the Year website, these are all very beautiful pens. They are. It's a great... I love looking at this site. They ruined it by putting abs on it. Because this 2020 pen, everything about it, I actually like. I think it's designed nicely, right? Yeah, with the cap on it, it looks great. The helmet is fantastic, right? Like, the helmet cap. Like, it's a genius. Genius design. That actually just looks like a really nice pen. But then they put abs on it. God.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I love this so much. In the worst way possible.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So, is the ink the blood then?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Is that what we're saying? Ooh. Right? Is there an... There's got to be... Do they not sell a red ink with this? It's got... All the imagery is a lot of red in there.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I don't know. It's got to be red, right? You got to ink this up with a red ink.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I feel like you'd have to, because there's abs on it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I'm looking at the presentation box. It's like a three-level pen box, but I don't see any ink.

'''Myke Hurley:''' The box is... Bananas. Why... What is that middle tray?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. That's exactly what I was going to say. I don't know what the middle tray is for. So...

'''Myke Hurley:''' Do you put all your other pens in it, maybe? That's extra abs. It looks like a pen storage. Yes, the abs. Just the abs of the box.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Box abs. After they've won the war, and they're all eating and drinking, there's a smoother section with a little bit of a wine belly to it that you swap in.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. And then you have the retired Spartan, and he just kind of lets off go a bit as he goes into older age.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. Right. So I think that's where the extra ab sections go.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. They're just extra ab sections. I like ab sections. That's fun. Mm-hmm. This is the worst thing.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh. You're a high-class brand, Graf von Weber-Castell. Don't put abs on the pen. Don't do it. This is Sparta.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, we did it, Myke. We made it through. I'm only crying a little bit because that was worth it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I put abs on the pen. This episode is brought to you by HelloFresh. HelloFresh makes cooking delicious meals at home a reality, regardless of your comfort in the kitchen. From step-by-step recipes to pre-measured ingredients, you'll have everything you need to get a wow-worthy dinner on the table in about 30 minutes. Break out of your dinner rut with HelloFresh's seasonal, chef-curated recipes every week. There is something for everyone. There's family recipe options, calorie-smart options, vegetarian, and their fun menu series, like their Hall of Fame, so you can get what HelloFresh customers are considered to be their best meals, or a Kraft burgers selection to pick from as well. HelloFresh has more five-star recipes than any other meal kit, so you'll know that you're going to get something delicious, and it's super flexible as well. You can add extra meals to your weekly order if you need to, as well as some tasty treats. Maybe you want to, you know, have something on the side, some garlic bread, maybe some cookie dough for dessert. You can add all of that on as you please. Now, Brad, I have the pleasure of following Mary Beth on Instagram, and I noticed there was some cooking going on in the Dowdy household recently.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I am so excited to talk about this, because my son Tyler, who is 11, he loves having these kits and the directions so he can be the chef. He gets enraged if you try to help him make these dinners. He was yelling at me to get out of the kitchen, and that my son is able to follow these directions. Like, he didn't, he's obviously not, like, you know, catching himself on fire. We're not letting him do, like, those types of things. But he'll do all the prep work, all the cutting, all the mixing, all the actual cooking with, you know, myself or my wife in there, you know, making sure. But he is so proud of being able to work through these recipes, and if my son can do it, anybody can do it. And on top of that, the food's amazing. Like, we had tacos one night, we had burgers one night, and, like, these are all, like, you know, the fancy burgers. Like, had the, you know, just this great sauce, and, you know, he's cutting up the potatoes to make the french fries. And he was obsessed with HelloFresh, and, like, we're going to just have to continue to get him, because I kind of like Tyler making us dinner, where we don't have to work at it. So, it's great. He is so proud of doing it, and takes it extremely seriously, and I loved every second of it. And on top of that, we loved the food. The food was outstanding.